Is Work Personal?

Bren, over at Slacker Manager, has a hoppin' discussion going on about whether work is personal. Please check it out and weigh in.

Here's my quick take on it:

We all have to do some projects and tasks that we cannot get real passionate about. Not all of work can be fun and happy-happy. Some of us might have jobs that would be tough to call fun. Others of us have jobs that ought to be fun, but we're miserable.

The work itself does not matter, it is who we are being when we come to work. We can be doing a great job, but still not bringing all of ourselves to our work (a therefore not doing our best work).

Choosing to make work personal does not make one a workaholic. Working more is not an indication of the degree work is personal, and people who work long hours can be just as disconnected from their work as a clock watcher.

Bottom line: We should strive to make work as personal as possible. Make the best of our current situation, but move toward making changes if our work does not offer meaning and joy. To make the greatest possible contribution, our hearts and minds must be personally invested in our work.

And again, it is not so much about the work. I knew screwgun opperators who worked in Black & Decker plants day in and day out and to whom work was personal.

Life's too short to strive for anything less. And while we are striving, making changes, getting the development we need, our current circumstances will take on a whole new meaning and worth.

Work takes up too much of our lives to be just work.

Read Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's books about the flow experience (Good Business, Beyond Boredom and Anxiety, Flow). A totally connected, fun, and personal experience. I have been in flow and it is better than drugs (not that I would know anything about that, purely speculation).

Just a point of clarification. Viewing work as personal does not mean that one is an outstanding performer. First, many people don't know what it means to see work as personal. Second, seeing work as personal opens up the potential for us to do our best work.

If you read the comments on the Slacker Manager post, you will see that part of this debate is semantics. If the word "personal" is hanging you up, then forget the word. The question is, do your coworkers, peers, and managers, EVER see the "living out loud" you, or just the the curtailed you? Do you play full out at work? Are you connected to the company, people, and the work? Do your actions demonstrate a love for what you do and a need to take the initiative to do what you can to optimize personal, team and company success? Are setbacks saddening and successes very sweet?

Even when our work is personal, we will have good days and bad days. But if work is not personal, we will never have STUPENDOUSLY AMAZING days.

BTW, there are marketing implications to this as well. When work is personal, the product or service is also more personal. We've heard a lot about how the best companies are forming deeper connections with their customers by connecting them to the business. Presentations with features and benefits become more provocative, then the provocative communication becomes evocative conversation.

Personal means individual connection, identification, meaning, and importance. When things are personal, they can be a bit more messy and we can avoid this by remaining just a bit aloof.

Sometimes taking something personally may not seem serve us well, like when a helpful suggestion gets translated as personal censure. I hate the saying "you shouldn't take this personally," because it misrepresents the root cause of the problem - in this case, getting defensive. The problem with defensiveness is not that the person took it personally, it is that they have defined success as being right. One can be very open and coachable while feeling a deep personal connection to his or her work.

OK, I have been on this soapbox way too long and I can see everyone has already headed for the saloon. Thanks, Bren, for opening up this fun can of gummi worms!

Comments

[Bren]

Great reflections, Lisa. Especially the part about getting hung up on the word 'personal.' Sounds familiar. :-)